On a job with Eidenbenz, Basel
1945
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 5.8 x 5.6 cm (2 5/16 x 2 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1994.37.416
Art Historical Context
In 1945, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank captured *On a Job with Eidenbenz,*, a candid gelatin silver print that offers a glimpse into his formative years. At just 21, Frank was honing his craft in his native Switzerland, and this intimate snapshot—trimmed to a diminutive 5.8 x 5.6 cm—suggests a seized during professional work with fellow photographer Michael Eidenbenz. The scale evokes the immediacy of personal photography, typical of mid-20th-century gelatin silver prints, where light-sensitive silver halides embedded in gelatin emulsion produced rich tonal contrasts and sharp details o...
About the Artist
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (1924-2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker whose revolutionary approach to documentary photography fundamentally transformed the medium and influenced generations of artists. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 9, 1924, to a middle-class Jewish family, Frank began his photographic apprenticeship in 1941, working with commercial photographers before im...